How To Prevent Childhood Obesity And Create Health For Our Kids

The foundation we set for our children’s health in childhood—starting even before conception—will carry them throughout their lives. Yet a third of all American children are overweight or obese, and we are seeing an increase in type 2 diabetes in children.

In today’s episode, I talk with Dr. Elizabeth Boham, Sam Kass, and Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh about the urgency of prioritizing and establishing good nutrition habits in infancy, in the home as the child grows, and in school.

Dr. Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices Functional Medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing.

After cooking for the Obamas in Chicago for two years, Sam Kass joined the White House kitchen staff in 2009. During his White House tenure, he took on several additional roles, including Executive Director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign and Senior White House Policy Advisor for Nutrition. As one of the First Lady’s longest-serving advisors, he helped Mrs. Obama create the first major vegetable garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden. Currently, Sam is a partner at Acre Venture Partners. Acre is a venture-capital fund investing in the future of food with a mission to improve human and environmental health in the food system. The fund focuses on early-stage, highly disruptive impactful companies in the food system focused on agriculture, the supply chain, and the consumer. Sam is also the author of Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World.

Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh is leading the work in understanding the infant microbiome. She is a nutritional scientist who helps new and expectant moms learn about creating healthy gut bugs in their babies. She translates her extensive scientific knowledge of breastmilk and the gut microbiome into practical terms to help parents understand how a balanced gut from infancy can lead to a healthy immune system and metabolism for life. Dr. Shafizadeh received her PhD in nutritional biology from the University of California, Davis, and spends her free time “loving the guts” out of her two boys.

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens and Rupa Health.

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Full-length episodes of these interviews can be found here:
Dr. Elizabeth Boham
Sam Kass
Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh